How to assign topic kind in HelpNDoc (Step-by-step guide)

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HelpNDoc offers four kinds of topics. When you assign topic kind, your topic's behavior will change thus providing greater flexibility to create sophisticated documentation projects.

HelpNDoc offers four kinds of topics:

1. Normal contains text and images that you develop
2. Empty is used as a chapter heading. No text or images are shown when you publish your documentation
3. Show external URL provides users a link to the URL you enter
4. Include external file allows you to incorporate content that's currently located in a file outside your HelpNDoc project

By default, a new topic is assigned 'Normal kind.' There are two steps for assigning an alternative kind.

Step 1: Select topic kind

You have three options when assigning a new topic kind:

Option 1
Select the topic to which you'd like to change topic kind.
Click Topic properties in the Home ribbon tab. This displays a menu.
Click Topic kind and select the kind that you'd like to assign to the topic.

Option 2
Right-click the topic in your Table of contents. This displays a menu.
Click Topic kind to view the kinds as outlined above.
Select the kind that you'd like to assign.

Option 3
Select the topic in the Table of contents. The kind that is currently assigned to the topic is displayed in the yellow bar along the top.
Click Change at the right of this label. This displays the topic kind menu as outlined above.

This displays the topic kind you selected above in the yellow bar along the top of your page.

Step 2: Enter topic information

The second step depends upon the topic kind you selected above:

Normal topic
Simply click your blank page and begin entering content.

Empty topic
This blank page serves as a chapter heading to which you may not add content.
If you had previously entered content before assigning this topic kind, your content is still there. Although your content is associated with this topic, it will not be displayed when you publish your documentation.

Show external URL
Enter the URL that you'd like to include in your documentation.
To test the URL you entered, click the link on the far right-hand side.

Include external file
To navigate to the file that you'd like to include, click the button to the far right.
This displays a window that allows you to locate the file. Select the file and then click Open.
This displays the path to that file on your page. When you publish your documentation the contents of this file will be included.

This assigns the new kind to your topic and completes the necessary information that will allow your users to enjoy the advantages of these sophisticated documentation features.

Learn more and download HelpNDoc free for personal use at http://www.helpndoc.com

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Closed Caption:

Hello Folks. HelpNDoc offers four kinds of topics. When you assign a topic kind, your topic's behavior will change thus providing
greater flexibility to create sophisticated documentation projects.
By default, a new topic is assigned a 'Normal’ kind. There are two steps for assigning an alternative topic kind:
1. You select a topic kind you want to assign to a topic
2. You enter the information for that kind of topic
Let’s begin with step 1 showing you 3 methods you can use to assign a topic kind to your topic.
First, select the topic to which you'd like to change the topic kind. The topic you selected now becomes highlighted.
Then click ‘Topic properties’ in the Home ribbon tab here in the ‘Table of Contents’ group. This displays a dropdown menu.
Now, hover over ‘Topic kind’ and select the kind that you'd like to assign to the selected topic.
Another method is to Right-click the topic in your Table of contents. This then displays a popup menu. Once again hover over ‘Topic kind’
to view the kinds as outlined above and select the kind that you'd like to assign.
And lastly, select the topic in the Table of contents. The kind of topic that is currently assigned to the topic is displayed in the yellow
bar along the top of the content section. Click the ‘Change’ link to the right of this label. This displays the topic kind menu.
Change the topic kind as desired following the same procedure as before.
Now that you have selected the desired topic kind, the second step is to enter the topic information,
depending upon the topic kind you selected:
For a ‘Normal’ topic, which contains text and images that you create, simply click the blank content section and begin entering content.
An ‘Empty’ topic serves as a chapter heading to which you may not add content. If you had previously entered content before assigning this
topic kind, your content is still there. Although your content is associated with this topic, it will not be displayed when you publish your
documentation.
‘Show external URL’ provides users a link to a URL that you enter here in the URL text box, for which you'd like to include in your
documentation. To test the URL you entered, click the URL link button here to the right side of the URL text box.
And finally, ‘Include an external file’ allows you to incorporate content that's currently located in a file outside your HelpNDoc project into your
topic. Simply navigate to the file that you'd like to include by clicking on the file browse button here to the right of the file path text box.
This displays a file browse window that allows you to locate the file. Select the file and then click Open.
This now displays the path in the text box to the file on your computer. When you publish your documentation the contents of this file will be
included. You have now assigned a new kind to your topic and completed the necessary steps that
will allow your users to enjoy the advantages of these sophisticated documentation features.
HelpNDoc is free for personal use and evaluation purposes. You can download it at www.helpndoc.com and see other video guides
www.helpndoc.com/online-help
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